Rat Utopia Experiment: The Future of Humanity

Administrator

Between 1958 and 1962 John B. Calhoun conducted a series of experiments on Norway rats. In these experiments the rats were given everything they needs as in food, water, bedding, space, and shelter.

Even though the experiment was repeated several times, every experiment resulted in the same breakdown in social structure.

One of the first changes noticed was the reduction in reproduction. Up until a certain point the population increased at a steady and predictable rate. However, when the population reached a certain size reproduction slowed down.

With no reason to defend resources, rats seemed to attack each other for no reason.

Sometimes male mice would breed with either male or female mice.

Some mice retreated from the other mice and did nothing but sleep, eat and groom themselves.

Mothers abandoned their children.

This should be a warning for humanity. We simply are not designed to have everything we need. For hundreds of thousands of years our ancestors followed the herds, trapped, and forged for whatever they could find. Our DNA is coded to be a hunter-gatherer. This may explain why inner city youth kill each other at unimaginable rates.

What should be concerning is how social structure broke down and never returned. Once the mice stopped breeding, they never started breeding again even though their population continued to decrease.

If we look at the above bulleted list, we can find an exact comparison between modern society and rat experiment. Whether it is males breeding with either make or female, or mothers abandoning their children, we see exact comparisons.

As more cultures across the world develop, and have easy access to food, housing... etc, chances are we will see widespread violence, and desegregation of society.